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Plasma and LCD TVs are very reliable |
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Sunday, 04 November 2007 |
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| LCD & plasma TVs require few repairs during the first 3 years of use, according to US Consumer Reports. |
The consumer review firm's Annual Product Reliability Survey, featured in the upcoming December issue, found that the flat panel sets overall had a 3% repair rate. Rear-projection TVs (not so popular over here in Europe), on the other hand, were found to be much more repair prone than its 2 rivals.
Panasonic's 50-inch TH-50PZ700U plasma model was named Consumer Reports' best flat-panel TV ever tested. Overall, Panasonic liquid crystal display & plasma sets had a 2% average repair rate.
Among LCDs, Dell, which recently stopped selling its own brand of TVs & Hitachi were among the less reliable brands, as were Philips plasma TVs. Aside from Panasonic, other brands with low repair rates included Sony, Samsung, Toshiba & JVC in LCDs; & Pioneer & Samsung in plasmas.
Among the tiny percentage of sets with problems, most repairs were free, presumably because they were covered by the manufacturer's standard warranty. "This new reliability data reinforces Consumer Reports long-standing advice that consumers skip the extended warranty when buying a flat-panel TV," CR said in a statement.
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